Professor Adam Winkler Comments in TIME on How Author J.K. Rowling’s References to Weaponry in Historical Fiction Measures Up Against Historical Fact

March 15, 2016 – Professor Adam Winkler was cited in a TIME magazine article about J.K. Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series, and her references in a new series of stories to the use of fictional weaponry and permits in early 20th century New York.

Professor Winkler appreciated Rowling’s attention to historical detail in what he saw as a reference to weapons licensing laws in the United States. “The United States in the 1920s and ’30s passed laws all over the country to restrict people from carrying dangerous weapons and she built on that,” said Professor Winkler. “And, as I’ve come to understand it, a wand is a dangerous weapon as well,” he said. “It may be that wands were actually more regulated than guns at that time.”